Illegal Immigrant Kills Cop Driving on the Wrong Side of the Freeway Drunk

An illegal immigrant who killed a police office while driving the wrong way in on an Arizona freeway Monday had a blood-alcohol level almost three times the legal limit, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Raul Silva Corona had driven 35 miles in the wrong direction on three freeways with a blood alcohol level of .238 percent in the wee hours of Monday morning before he killed Mesa Police Officer Brandon Mendoza, according to the AP’s report.

In Arizona, a driver is considered intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent.

Mendoza, who served for thirteen years at the Mesa Police Department, was on his way home from work.

Customs and Immigration Enforcement told the AP that Corona, who was also killed in the crash, was from Mexico and in the country illegally.

This was not the first time Corona had broken the law. The AP notes that in 1994 Corona plead guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge in Colorado, and prosecutors dismissed other charges of burglary, assault, and leaving the scene of an accident.

News of the accident comes as lawmakers express outrage at a recent report revealing that last year ICE released more than 36,000 criminal immigrants convicted of nearly 88,000 crimes.

According to the document, 16,070 of those convictions were from drunk or drugged driving.